In some ways, Putin is correct about the west. We are weak. But he is wrong that democracy is the cause of our weakness. Truly, we suffer for the same reason that the Russian people suffer: exploitation by the rich. We are both oligarchies.
The fascist Russian regime is evil for obvious reasons: an authoritarian ruler, as demented and egomaniacal as he may be, can nonetheless have every desired command fulfilled. But America is also evil, tracing back to our heinous history of indigenous genocide and Black enslavement, whose principles and ramifications certainly carry into today. We are nominally a democracy, but the majority of those who we elect act under oligarchic puppet-masters. Further, we are cleanly divided by political affiliation, and this is Putin’s point as well as partly his doing. But is it because we are a democracy that we are divided? No. There were points in American history where the American people were much closer to being one people. It must have been after 1865, of course, and before 1980 or so. But there was a point, perhaps in the 1950s or 1960s, when America was as domestically unified as ever, when oligarchs did not have as much power to sow divisions among their fellow Americans for the sake of enhancing this power.
This era is far bygone. Thanks to our oligarchs, there is a violent hatred among fellow Americans, some of whom favor Vladimir Putin above their own president and half of their countrymen. American claims of patriotism, equality, “liberty and justice for all” are trite. When half of our people do not believe the other half should exist (and this feeling is reciprocated by both sides), we are not a country, or at least not a functional one. We are a disgusting mass of entitled, hostile humans at their worst.
Would we do better with a strongman authoritarian? We would almost certainly do worse. Putin himself is a case in point. Our democracy is not the reason for our weakness. It is our complete neglect of our fellow Americans and the common good, which we have relegated behind our self-fulfillment. Religion is to thank for this, as are other tools of hatred which have skewed our motivations and prejudices.
Now, look at Ukraine. During the Euromaidan protests in 2014, there was such unity, such genuine brotherhood among its citizens. Above all else, there was a moving call to fight for their country, and to die for their children. Not only for one’s own property, but for all Ukrainians’ possessions. Not only for one’s own child, but for the next generation of Ukrainians. This is what country means. This is nobility and bravery. The very same holds true for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukrainians have fearlessly vowed to “fight to the end” not to save their own possessions, but to secure freedom and liberty for the children of Ukraine. To give one’s own life for the sake of their descendants is the single-most noble, patriotic, and godly action one could possibly perform.
Granted, the Ukrainians have a clear common enemy. It seems this was true in 2014 as well. Under external threats, it may be easier for a nation to unite. The United States has plenty of external threats. In fact, the oligarchs who sow divisions are not really Americans, and thus should be treated as a foreign enemy. But none of these threats are obvious or immediate enough for the American people to overcome their hatred against one another for superficial qualities: religion, race and ethnicity.
But there is something else about Ukraine that it seems hard to imagine that America will ever have. Many Americans are so selfish. While gun-slinging bearded beer-bellies claim to be patriotic, our love of country is more so a love of self. My generation of Americans does not know the meaning of self-sacrifice other than for their own. It is no surprise that from within us bubbled up a leader like Trump. We certainly know nothing of self-sacrifice to the extent of the Ukrainians. Americans feel entitled to their property, as they have since their genocide of the natives, and that this property was granted to them by some god. But do Ukrainians (especially the religious ones) not feel the same way?
Perhaps Ukrainians do not feel entitled because they have lived insecurely throughout their history, persecuted under the Russian Empire, then the USSR, and now Russia. Maybe there has not been a long-enough period of time for the Ukrainian people to develop entitlement. Each generation has had to earn their possessions. And because of this, they feel unified.
Ukraine is the counterexample to Putin’s argument that democracies are weak. In fact, they are a counterexample both socially and militarily. What determines “weakness” is leadership. While corruption is more likely in an authoritarian regime (Russia) where none are held accountable by the people, corruption can certainly exist in a democratic one (America) where the people are fools to blatant corruption.
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